AT VM95ML stylus under a microscope looks . . . weird?

DorkusPrime

DorkusPrime

New Member
Happy New Year, everybody!

Let me start off by saying that I'm very very new to Turntables. I may whip up a post about it later, but I just built my very first turntable from vintage parts and a custom plinth. For the final piece, I picked up a brand new AudioTechnica VM95ML cartridge, installed it, and gave it a whirl from my stupendously limited vinyl collection. Let me tell you, it was SO EXCITING!! There's nothing like finally getting a build project working and useable. But with all the excitement (and of course having literally no basis for comparison) I couldn't even begin to tell you how it sounded other than EFFIN' AWESOME.

Anyway, having seen a ton of amazing microscope stylus photos here and elsewhere, I had to give it a shot myself. And . . . well, let me just show you. Reminder that this is a brand new MicroLine stylus, not some sort of crystalline alien creature growing out of a diving board.

IMG_5336.JPG IMG_5338.JPG IMG_5341.JPG IMG_5343.JPG

So I have a couple questions for you AK gurus:

1: Is this (somehow) what the stylus is supposed to look like? It's nothing like what I've seen online so far
2: If everything's in good shape there, is there a better way to clean the thing? It's still covered in wool fuzz even though I just gave it a good brushing with a Big Fudge stylus brush. Maybe I should pick up some canned air?

Thanks folks! Just so you know, this forum played a HUGE part in my deciding to take a dive into the world of vinyl :D
 
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DorkusPrime said:
Happy New Year, everybody!

Let me start off by saying that I'm very very new to Turntables. I may whip up a post about it later, but I just built my very first turntable from vintage parts and a custom plinth. For the final piece, I picked up a brand new AudioTechnica VM95ML cartridge, installed it, and gave it a whirl from my stupendously limited vinyl collection. Let me tell you, it was SO EXCITING!! There's nothing like finally getting a build project working and useable. But with all the excitement (and of course having literally no basis for comparison) I couldn't even begin to tell you how it sounded other than EFFIN' AWESOME.

Anyway, having seen a ton of amazing microscope stylus photos here and elsewhere, I had to give it a shot myself. And . . . well, let me just show you. Reminder that this is a brand new MicroLine stylus, not some sort of crystalline alien creature growing out of a diving board.

View attachment 2757909 View attachment 2757910 View attachment 2757911 View attachment 2757912

So I have a couple questions for you AK gurus:

1: Is this (somehow) what the stylus is supposed to look like? It's nothing like what I've seen online so far
2: If everything's in good shape there, is there a better way to clean the thing? It's still covered in wool fuzz even though I just gave it a good brushing with a Big Fudge stylus brush. Maybe I should pick up some canned air?

Thanks folks! Just so you know, this forum played a HUGE part in my deciding to take a dive into the world of vinyl :D
Click to expand...

yes, need to clean the stylus. All that stuff came from tracking the grooves.

may need to clean your records too before playing them. Eventually the stuff on the stylus tip will build up to the point where it will partially lift the tip out of the groove.
 
Wow, so all that gunk is built-up bits of PVC from my records?? Thanks a ton! I'll search the forums for a way to get this stuff off.

Regarding the records themselves, I've been using the Big Fudge cleaning kit (wet cleaning with a spray and a velvet brush), but admittedly forgot to use it on some of the worst ones (like, really bad free records that I was just using for testing). Good to know that this is even possible!

Nabnassett said:
What did you use to get those pictures? They came out good.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was quite surprised at how well they turned out, especially for the price – it's just a $30 wireless/USB microscope I picked up from Amazon [non-affiliate Amazon link . . . I couldn't find any forum rules against that, but please lmk if I missed something and I'll take it down]
 
with that much crud id be hitting it with some ipa and magic eraser. if youre wet cleaning and using a velvet brush and not letting them dry completely, the stylus is probably cleaning out sludge and then drying on the tip hard.
 
Holy isopropyl, Batman!

I combined some recommendations (Thanks everybody!) and soaked the stylus and cantilever in a cap-full of IPA as @narud suggested, but lacking a magic eraser I gently scrubbed it with a stylus brush similar to the ones recommended by @ghamilton & @Sgt Shultz. Here she is after the first pass – you can see the actual shape of the stylus!
IMG_0100.JPG

So I did it a couple more times, and it came out like this:

IMG_0105.JPG

Looking fabulous! Just a little more gunk to get off:

IMG_0111.JPG

Now that's a clean diamond! Thanks again for the help and the lessons, particularly around drying the records completely – As with many other aspects of this hobby, it seems that patience is key.

Cheers!
 
Dorkusprime,

appreciate the lead on the microscope! Have spent the last 2 days trying to get a look at my Ortofon Bronze and have had no luck. I've used a leupe, several magnifying glasses, an app for my phone. Old eyes suck!

Your stylus looks mint.
 
DorkusPrime said:
Happy New Year, everybody!

Let me start off by saying that I'm very very new to Turntables. I may whip up a post about it later, but I just built my very first turntable from vintage parts and a custom plinth. For the final piece, I picked up a brand new AudioTechnica VM95ML cartridge, installed it, and gave it a whirl from my stupendously limited vinyl collection. Let me tell you, it was SO EXCITING!! There's nothing like finally getting a build project working and useable. But with all the excitement (and of course having literally no basis for comparison) I couldn't even begin to tell you how it sounded other than EFFIN' AWESOME.

Anyway, having seen a ton of amazing microscope stylus photos here and elsewhere, I had to give it a shot myself. And . . . well, let me just show you. Reminder that this is a brand new MicroLine stylus, not some sort of crystalline alien creature growing out of a diving board.

View attachment 2757909 View attachment 2757910 View attachment 2757911 View attachment 2757912

So I have a couple questions for you AK gurus:

1: Is this (somehow) what the stylus is supposed to look like? It's nothing like what I've seen online so far
2: If everything's in good shape there, is there a better way to clean the thing? It's still covered in wool fuzz even though I just gave it a good brushing with a Big Fudge stylus brush. Maybe I should pick up some canned air?

Thanks folks! Just so you know, this forum played a HUGE part in my deciding to take a dive into the world of vinyl :D
Click to expand...

how many sides of albums did you play before those pix?
 
DorkusPrime said:
Holy isopropyl, Batman!

I combined some recommendations (Thanks everybody!) and soaked the stylus and cantilever in a cap-full of IPA as @narud suggested, but lacking a magic eraser I gently scrubbed it with a stylus brush similar to the ones recommended by @ghamilton & @Sgt Shultz. Here she is after the first pass – you can see the actual shape of the stylus!
View attachment 2758310

So I did it a couple more times, and it came out like this:

View attachment 2758311

Looking fabulous! Just a little more gunk to get off:

View attachment 2758314

Now that's a clean diamond! Thanks again for the help and the lessons, particularly around drying the records completely – As with many other aspects of this hobby, it seems that patience is key.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I don't recommend soaking the whole stylus, the cantilever suspension could suffer unwanted results. Best to only dampen the stylus brush and lightly brush the stone back to front.
 
I watched the video of the Big Fudge kit. It looks like the stylus brush is fairly soft. The Discwasher brush is very stiff to the point that you can not push down the bristles but a fingernail will slip into them and get the gunk off the diamond and the section of the cantilever that touches the bristles.

This is the kind of stylus cleaner that works well.

The Big Fudge kit comes with goop, I never use that some use the onzow but others have moved on from that dunking operation for cleaning. The Magic Eraser is a dunk the stylus, just lower the cuing to allow the needle to drop into the ME and lift up. This isn't something I have done more than a couple times. The Discwasher SC-1 does and excellent job and I have a couple of them for all the tts I have. I use it dry for quick clean but I also will put a drop of fluid on the first edge to reach the stylus for a wet clean and the brush only being 25% wet will dry the needle as it is pulled through the brush. I think those little black brushes are similar with bristles that will clean up the needle properly.

Now that the nail is clean, regular use, every few records is recommended to avoid getting that build up again.

Enjoy your vinyl
 
What Sgt. said watch that soaking.
What you did looks good , just get in the habit of cleaning it often. Enjoy the Music!
 
ripblade said:
Don't make a habit of this.

Now that it's nice and clean, keep it that way between each side of play using any of the tools already described, or some other like Blutack or Moongel, etc.

With vinyl, cleanliness is truly next to godliness.
Click to expand...
I can tell when someone has used that moongel goop as bits stick to the stylus, then dust sticks to that then more goops sticks next time and eventually there is a very hard to tremove solid rock covering the diamond. The last one I had to clean even alcohol would not remove and I had to chip it away.
Alcohol wont hurt the stylus glue (I wish it did it would make my job easier). It wont hurt coils either and mostly wont affect suspensions either. There was a test done over at VE and someone put a selection of old stylus in a jar fully submerged in isoproply alcohol for several weeks then dried them out and played then they were fine.
A stylus brush dampened with alcohol and brush the diamond is the best and cheapest way to keep a stylus clean.
Chris
 
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